Nope. Not gonna happen

Okay. Sorry. I tried. But turns out this just isn't going to work out.

Too much going on around here and never enough time at the computer. If you want to keep up with Ella, you can always friend me on Facebook. Leave me a comment with your email and I'll tell you how to find me.

I will still read all the blogs I currently read, but as for this one, this will be my last post. I'm glad I started this and was able to find some great blogs to follow, but sorry. I just can't hang. I tried for two years, but never really amounted to much. So...so long folks!!

Here we go again

Dang it...I swear. I can't blog consistently to save my life. Shame on me.

In my defense, I have started writing several posts (albeit in my head), but something always tends to come up before I get to the computer and then I forget. You know, the baby's hungry or grumpy or just wants to be held. Or I desperately need a shower. Or food. Or clean clothes. Oh, the life of a stay at home mommy. :o)

Well, one thing I'll note since I last posted. Ella had her 4 month check up at the pediatrician on the 7th. She was 13lb 11.5oz and 23.5". She's pretty average for weight, about 52%. Still a shorty though. Only 23% for height. Oh well, she's just perfect to us. :o)

Time has just been flying by lately. I don't know where it's gone! I'll try to better about posting before too much more time has gone by.

Thanks for sticking around!

Nothing important

I don't have anything real interesting to say today, I'm just bored. Actually, I'm about to go a bit stir crazy. This crazy weather we've been getting has got me even more cooped up in the house than usual and it's really starting to get to me. The entire week, I've only been out of the house for an hour, to go to pilates. I haven't visited friends. I haven't gone shopping. I haven't even been to the mailbox! I really wanted to go run some much needed errands today, but John didn't want me out driving with ice on the roads.

It's supposed to be back up in the 50s tomorrow, so I told John that I AM going to run errands tomorrow. By myself. And I'm going to take as much time as I want! Since Ella was born, I haven't had very much "me time". Oh, sure, I may get an hour or two here and there, but when you're at home with the same small person day after day, an hour or two here and there just doesn't cut it. John, on the other hand, has had SEVERAL full weekends of "guy time". And time away from home, for that matter, so he has no daddy responsibilities to speak of during his "guy time".

Now, I understand that breastfeeding does mean that I CAN'T be away that much, but still. I sure would prefer and hour or two every few days instead of every once in a long while. Is that too much to ask? Really, I can't wait for Ella to be able to sit up on her own. That sure will make shopping and errands a little easier not having to deal with her car seat and all that. At least then maybe I can leave the house more easily, but I still would love just a little more "me time".

Anywhoser, John thinks he's going to spend all this time working in the garage tomorrow with his brother. Ha! There is NO WAY he's going to bully me into either a) staying home and watching Ella or b) taking her with me. He gets so much more time for himself and I am going to take time for myself, like it or not. I need it. Just a little break. If only to go to Target and the grocery store. :o)

The one about the baby

So I didn't want to just bust up in here and overload you guys with all that's been going on the past 4 or 5 months all at once. I figured I should start small. Then you wouldn't get so bored with one giant post and maybe you'd come back to read more later on. :o)

I figured I should probably start with Ella. I'm sure that's who you're most interested in anyway, am I right?

You know, I'm not quite sure where in my pregnancy I left off from blogging, but the last about 2 months I started getting high blood pressure and lots of swelling. While my doctor never actually diagnosed me as having pre-eclampsia, it was bad enough in the end that she decided if Ella hadn't made her debut by 40 weeks, we were going to induce. At my last appointment, we scheduled the induction for 6am on Thursday October 7.

You can imagine my surprise when I was awakened at 2am on the 7th by contractions! At first, I didn't know they were contractions, but after I had 3 in a row, almost exactly 10min apart, I was sure. I decided I should go ahead and take a shower, wake up John, then we'd get our stuff and maybe head to the hospital. Well, by the time I got in the shower (was only about 2:40am now), my contractions jumped all the way to 3 minutes apart! So I had a quickie shower and John woke up as I was starting to get dressed and I told him we needed to go already! He jumps up and gets dressed and gets the rest of our stuff together, feeds the dogs and puts them outside and finally helps me get in the car. The contractions were pretty rough by this point and I had to stop and breathe through them...still about 2-3min apart.

We left the house around 3:45am and got to the hospital about 4:15am. Once I got all checked in and changed and in bed, they checked me at about 5am and I was already 7cm! I went in hoping to not need an epidural and they basically said it's now or never after my first check, so I said no. Sure, it was painful, but it definitely wasn't anything I couldn't handle. I opted for a shot of an IV drug, but that mostly just made me a little loopy...didn't seem to ease the pain too much. The contractions continued to get stronger. My parents and sister got there around 6am and John's mom showed up shortly after. By 7am, I was more than ready to start pushing and after about an hour, Ella Renee was born at 8:14am, weighing in at just 6lb 5oz and 18.5" long. She was so little!

My first baby and I only had to endure a 6 hour labor and an hour of pushing...all without an epidural. It was so much easier than I was anticipating! I did, however, end up with full blown pre-eclampsia post delivery. I was on a magnesium drip for 24 hours which made my head feel like it was floating in a bowl of water. And because I was still hooked up to the darn IV, I had to call for a nurse every single time I had to pee. That sucked. But after a day and a half, I finally got off the IV and got an oral blood pressure medicine. That was helping enough that by Saturday morning, I was cleared to go home. As was Ella, who was doing just fantastically!

There you have her story...now I'll share some pictures of her first 3 1/2 months so far. :o)

Newborn...obviously...



Going home from the hospital



One week old



Halloween



One month old



Two months old



3 months old, but we didn't have any good pictures of her in one of her Christmas outfits



3 months old



Ummm...

...hello?

::crickets chirping::

Anybody out there?

::chirp...chirp...chirp::

Hey, it's okay. I understand. I haven't been around. At all. In quite a while.

Sorry.

But, if y'all will have me, I'd like to come back. Would that be okay?

We've now gotten through the first 3 months of parenthood and things are starting to get a little easier. I might actually have time now to write more! I've actually been thinking of different things to write about lately, but I was a little embarassed to just come back full force with no "re-introduction".

If you've followed me in the past, you'll notice that, (yet again, I know...), I changed up the blog a bit. I was tired of wondering so much if my blog title was a right fit for me, or if it made sense to anyone...or whatever. So now, it's just me. And my ramblings. Hope y'all don't mind too much. I think I'm done making changes. I think. We'll see, I guess. :o)

Well, if there's anyone left reading, just wanted to let you know I'm back. And I hope to continue writing at a fairly consistent pace this time. And I really hope to come up with more interesting things to write about so you all will stick with me! :o)

Thanks for letting me come back!!